Ghost of Love: Chapter Twenty
Sakura shifted slightly as she peered around the corner. A bead of sweat trickled down her spine and she shifted her shoulder-blades, irritated by the sensation. Summer had definitely arrived, heralding her fourth month as a prisoner of the sound ninja. The underground compound was relatively cool, but it could not keep out the pervasive humidity and, to Sakura's despair, the only air-conditioned area was Orochimaru's creepy lab. On occasion she had been tempted to sneak in there, just to escape the discomfort of the heat, but the thought of what she might find deterred her. She shuddered as her imagination provided her with all sorts of disturbing images of the things that might be found in the laboratory of an overly curious man who was fond of experimenting on humans.
The pink-haired chunin sighed quietly as she forced her mind back to the task at hand; spying on Orochimaru. Not for the purpose of information gathering, per se, (though she wouldn't be averse to discovering some secret escape route out of the otogakure compound), no; this 'mission' she had assigned herself was more about amusing herself and trying to force her Seiregan to activate on her command. Stupid kekkai genkai. What use is it if I can't decide when to use it?
Sakura was not so foolish as to assume that the snake-sannin was not aware of her activities. He was, however, playing along quite convincingly so far. He stopped to chat with Kabuto, chuckling under his breath as he flicked a sweep of his long hair behind his shoulder. Kabuto's glasses glinted as his face slanted away and he smirked a slightly. Sakura frowned. It was probably just paranoia – considering she was living in a nest of snakes, she felt quite justified in being extremely cautious – but it occurred to her that they might just be talking about her. Well, her stalking of Orochimaru was laughable, even she could admit that. Still, she was sick of the way the oto-nins were constantly throwing smirks at each other. It was as though none of them knew how to smile properly, for crying out loud! Maybe Orochimaru outlawed smiling? Sounds like him; 'In my compound, no one is permitted to smile. You may smirk, of course, as that is the customary facial expression of villains! Muahahahaha!' Well… maybe not exactly like that…
Orochimaru and Kabuto moved on, Sakura following them stealthily, bare feet silent on the concrete floor as she slipped towards the next corner. Right, time to get down to business. She focused, anchoring her chakra to her body, while allowing her senses to expand. It was not an easy task, supressing the Matsumori chakra while at the same time pressing outwards with her mind. Kind of like patting your head and rubbing your stomach, while saying the alphabet backwards. She had been practising night and day for a week now, though, and she had the hang of it to some degree. Unfortunately, the sheer amount of willpower and concentration it required meant that she couldn't sustain this state for more than thirty seconds at a time, but that was an enormous improvement over her initial inability to do it for even a single second!
She became aware of the chakra signatures of various nearby ninja as her mental landscape expanded, but she knew she had to hurry up and drill down to the one she wanted to see. The seconds ticked by, beads of sweat tickling their way down her spine as she remained perfectly still, eliminating all external distractions by sheer force of will.
And then she saw. A blazing, incandescent inferno of dark chakra; raw power burning out her mind, hollowing her soul into an empty vessel. It paralysed her, until all she could do was stare into it, unaccountably horrified by its very presence. What is this? Could this be Orochimaru?
Boldly, tentatively, Sakura reached out towards the writhing, burning thing, trying to get a sense of its mind, of its motives. Trying to identify it. It jerked, hissing and rumbling; a growl that was more sensation than sound. It knew she was there now, and it turned, faceless and yet with an air of insatiable hunger. Terror gripped the kunoichi, and she backpeddled, desperately trying to find her way back to her body, away from this monster. But it followed her; a shapeless, nameless, slavering evil whose intentions were startlingly clear; devour. It wanted only to consume her until there was nothing left, and she could feel the overwhelming pressure of its hunger. She cried out in fear, quaking with paralysing terror. There was no way out, no way back to reality; she was trapped here, glued in place by nightmarish fright, as the monster bore down on her, closer, closer…
Orochimaru twitched, irritated by the direction his conversation with Kabuto seemed to be taking; what to do with the Haruno girl. The grey-haired medic was disturbingly in favour of simply dissecting her and studying her eyes directly, without all that pesky flesh and bone getting in the way. Orochimaru fervently disagreed.
"We will not be cutting her open, Kabuto! And you will cease your insistence that she is of no use to us alive," he hissed impatiently. "Her 'use' is no concern of yours!"
Kabuto flinched slightly, put out by his master's out of hand rejection of his opinion, but wise enough to know that Orochimaru was not above making his point in a very physical and very unpleasant manner. "Yes, Lord Orochimaru."
Their conversation was called to an abrupt and thankful end by a keening, wailing screech from the direction of the girl in question. The two ninja exchanged wondering glances and dashed back up the hallway and around the corner, aware of her exact location because of her pitiful attempts at spying on them.
She was on the ground, writhing and screaming through clenched teeth, her eyes shut tight and her hands balled into fists. Orochimaru knelt swiftly by her side, neatly evading her thrashing limbs as he tried to discern what on earth could be causing this state of extreme distress. Chakra flashed intermittently in the air, burning off her skin, and lashing out at the two bystanders, before burrowing back into her body.
Kabuto watched silently, intrigued by this strange condition and not in any great hurry to help. He did, however, feel that he should at least look like he was trying to aid her, if only to head off the punishment that would be meted out to him should she die. He crouched down by her head, frowning as he mentally tossed aside idea after idea. This was not a seizure; it seemed to be something more… chakra related? Perhaps it had something to do with the Matsumori chakra, or even the Seiregan itself?
Out of sheer impatience, Orochimaru finally reached out and simply pinned her arms to the floor, coming to the realization that this had to be stopped before she did herself harm. He cocked his head to one side, considering her as she fought to free herself from whatever was assailing her.
"Kabuto… I'm going to see what's going in in there," he indicated the pink-adorned head with a flick of his eyes.
"I would advise caution, my lord," Kabuto intoned serenely, "I suspect this may have something to do with the Matsumori chakra, or perhaps the Seiregan."
Orochimaru eyed his subordinate speculatively, frustrated by his lack of insight, "This is a curious medical phenomenon; I would think you would be more… interested than you appear to be."
Kabuto stiffened, indignant. "I assure you, Lord Orochimaru, this is very intriguing indeed. However, I have no further information for you at this point. If I did, I would most certainly tell you!"
The snake-sannin allowed a slow smirk to draw at the edges of his lips; Kabuto was always so eager to prove his loyalty. In truth, it only made him seem more capable of treachery. "I believe you, Kabuto," he drawled, before turning back to Sakura.
Without further ado, Orochimaru ignited the connection he had formed with her the first time he entered her mind, and simply followed the path (well-worn by frequent chakra transfusions) down into the dark of her consciousness.
AN: Aaaah, no! Not plot, gods, it burns! -dies- Yes. This story does have a kind of sort of bit of a plot. It's not very big and it won't interfere with the 'character-development', so no worries! XD
I know I'm a detestable bitch-monster for not updating sooner. I got distracted by Bleach (Aizen is very, very delicious). Also, other boring real-life things that no one wants to hear about.
Anywho, let me know if you see any mistakes, etc. and tell me what you think! Also, thankyou to NymphDane777, DeadlyWolfQueen, Twinkletoast, Riptideribon21, IKillatFirstsight, and ReginaSlytherin! Your reviews inspire me to continue this, you wonderful, awesome people!